


can't help thinking this is how it ought to be

by BazineApologist



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Baseball, Baseball game, Ben Solo is a Momma's Boy, Ben is dating Bazine, F/M, Fluff, Kiss cam, Leia ships Reylo, Meddling Leia, Reylo endgame
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-12
Updated: 2019-08-12
Packaged: 2020-08-19 18:21:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,691
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20214208
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BazineApologist/pseuds/BazineApologist
Summary: Based on theReylo Promptsprompt:“Rey and Ben are strangers sitting next to each other at a baseball game. The kiss cam thinks they’re together, but they don't kiss even with people cheering. Unfortunately for them, the cam keeps coming back & back & back...”





	can't help thinking this is how it ought to be

**Author's Note:**

> This was an exercise to see if I could break through my writer's block and write something quick, without a lot of editing. 
> 
> The title is from the TSwift classic "You Belong With Me." 
> 
> (I am obviously very attached to the giant rice krispie treat my dad used to buy for me and my brother at baseball games.)

_Motherfucker, why does this keep happening?_ Ben thinks to himself as he glares daggers at the Jumbotron. It’s projecting his image to an entire baseball stadium full of Resistance fans (plus a few First Order fans—himself included).

The dickbag operating the Kiss Cam clearly has it out for him! The first time it happens, when the cam zooms in on him and the admittedly very pretty, but completely unknown-to-him brunette occupying the seat beside him, it’s funny. He freezes for a moment, mortified that 48,000 pairs of eyes are focused on him, but eventually, he recovers enough to lean over and kiss Bazine on his other side. 

It seems a little strange that the camera doesn’t follow, their kiss happening out of sight of the ravenous PDA fans, but it’s fine. Bazine isn’t even really reacting to the kiss, anyway, keeping her eyes straight ahead and relegating him to brushing his lips awkwardly against her cheek.

The woman on his other side just laughs and blows a kiss to the camera, earning a moment of rapturous applause from the crowd.

The second time it happens, Ben tries to ignore it, thinking it’s an accident. They probably picked out Ben and the stranger early on in the game and then forgot that they already featured them. He thinks if he just ignores it, eventually, someone will realize the mistake and pivot to another couple. But it isn’t happening. 

The woman sitting next to him shifts uncomfortably, staring at the Jumbotron while Ben continues to pretend he doesn’t notice what’s going on. “God, Ben, just kiss her already and be done with it,” Bazine finally hisses at him.

He glances over at Bazine and then turns to the other woman. She shrugs, offering him her cheek, if only to appease the masses, the cam, and Ben’s own girlfriend, apparently. He quickly gives her an excruciatingly chaste kiss, his lips barely even touching her. It’s the kind of kiss his mother used to force him to give Grandma Breha when they would visit her in the retirement home. 

The crowd jeers and Ben swears he hears Bazine snort.

Now, the third time, Ben knows it isn’t an accident. What kind of dipshits is Leia employing at this place, anyway? Whoever was up in that booth is doing this on purpose! He’s sure of it! Had he offended the camera person, somehow? Failed to hold the elevator door for them on his way up to his mother’s office? 

“I’m really sorry about this,” the woman beside him whispers in what Ben can only describe as an incredibly sexy British accent.

“_You’re_ sorry?” he asks her, turning toward her in surprise. “_I’m_ sorry. I think I must have been an asshole to someone in the booth, one time, and this is their revenge.”

“Oh, no,” she insists. “I work for the team. I’m sure it’s just my buddy Poe playing a prank on me. I’m sorry that you’re getting caught up in it.”

“Did you say Poe? Poe Dameron? That’s who’s operating the cam today?” 

“You know Poe?” she asks in surprise.

He glances up at the Jumbotron before he answers and—_Fuck! How is the camera still on them? Isn’t there a baseball game they need to film?_

“Yeah,” Ben practically growls. “I’ve known him since we were kids, unfortunately. This is exactly the kind of shit he would pull!”

The woman laughs. “Maybe we’re both the target, then.”

“Ben, can you get me a Prosecco?” Bazine suddenly interjects, looking up from her phone. 

Shit, Ben forgot she was here for a minute. 

“Uh, I don’t really think they have that here, Bazine,” he tells her. “It’s a ballpark.”

“We definitely don’t,” confirms the woman. “But we have beer and giant rice krispie treats,” she offers instead.

Bazine sighs. “I thought since your mom’s the coach you’d have access to some special VIP lounge or something. And that the lounge would have Prosecco. It’s fine, though. A rice krispie treat and a sparkling water sound _fine_.”

Ben rolls his eyes. “She’s the general manager, Bazine,” Ben tells her. “And we’re right on the third-base line. These are the best seats in the house.”

“Your mom’s Leia Organa?” The woman beside him lights up. 

“Uh, yeah?” 

“You’re Ben Solo?”

“Yes. And you are...?”

“Rey, Rey Niima,” the woman tells him, holding out her hand for a shake. “Your mom is my boss. She talks about you all the time, you know? I think she’s told me at least 69 times about her handsome, single son. She didn’t mention you root for the dark side, though,” she teases, pointing at his First Order cap. “Oh, wait!” she adds, blushing suddenly. “Err, I mean, this was a while ago! Way before you two were a thing, I’m sure.”

She leans over Ben to address Bazine, but Bazine isn’t really paying attention. “Fine,” Bazine announces to no one in particular. “I’ll get my own rice krispie.” She gets up and starts maneuvering past people, on her way to the aisle and concessions. It doesn’t look easy in heels.

“Sorry about that.” Rey grimaces when Bazine is out of earshot.

“It’s fine. I’m not even sure she was listening,” Ben assures her. “You know, now that you mention it, I think my mom mentioned you too. Pretty? Plucky? Lifelong MLB fan, despite being born on the wrong side of the Atlantic?”

Rey blushes at the “pretty” and laughs at the rest. Her laugh sounds like bells. “Guilty.” She smiles at him.

“Well, now you know I’m not the only one she’s pimping,” he tells her with a smirk. 

A cheer goes up in the crowd and Ben turns toward the game. Resistance #87, Finn Storm, just struck out a First Order batter. _Traitor,_ Ben thinks, remembering Storm’s brief stint as a relief pitcher for the First Order. (He’d worn #21, then.)

Put off by his team’s performance, Ben turns back to Rey. “Between you and me, my mom’s, uh, not the biggest fan of Bazine,” he confesses. “She’s been trying to get me to break up with her for a while now. So I’m not surprised she’s been trying to set me up.” 

Rey gasps. “You don’t think Leia’s the one who’s behind the Kiss C—” Rey stops abruptly, her eyes going wide and focusing on a point past Ben. Despite it being a warm summer day, Ben feels a chill down his spine.

“Your mom doesn’t like me?” Bazine’s voice asks.

“You’re back!” Ben exclaims, turning toward his girlfriend and doing his absolute best to distract her from what she just overheard. “That was quick.”

“Some vendor in the aisle gave me a rice krispie treat for free. I think he was trying to get my number,” she explains.“Your mom doesn’t like me? She’s never even met me.”

Ben glances over at Rey, whose eyes are now glued to the field and very deliberately not on him and Bazine. “Maybe we should talk about this later, Baz.”

“Why can’t we just talk about it now?” she asks, returning to her seat and unwrapping a corner of her krispie.

Ben takes a deep breath. “Well, it’s exactly like you said. She’s never met you. In the year we’ve been seeing each other, you’ve never once expressed any interest in getting to know her. Every time she invites you to anything, you decline.”

Bazine looks thoughtfully at the treat in her hand for a while. Then, up at Ben. “I told you, I don’t do parents. I thought we were on the same page about this.”

“We were, but, uh, things change,” he says, thinking of his recent reconciliation with his family.

“So this bothers you?” she asks, her voice carefully neutral.

“Well… a little.”

“I had no idea family was so important to you.”

“It is. Now, at least. So you’ll meet her?”

“God no!” Bazine balks. “I _just_ told you I don’t do parents. We’re definitely breaking up.”

Ben hears Rey choke behind him. He hadn’t forgotten about her for a second.

“You’re serious?” he asks Bazine.

“Oh, definitely,” she says, sounding exactly so.

“And you don’t want to talk about it more or think for a minute?”

“No, I feel quite sure about this.”

“Well,” Ben shrugs, feeling a little guilty that he’s not more broken up about breaking up with his on-again/off-again girlfriend of a year. “I guess this is it then.”

“I guess it is,” she says, getting out of her seat again and slipping the wrapped-up remainder of her rice krispie treat into her chic leather tote. “I’ll send you a Venmo request for my fare home?”

“Of course,” Ben agrees. 

“Enjoy the rest of your baseball match,” Bazine magnanimously offers. “And your life. Nice to meet you— Tiffany, was it?”

“Rey,” Rey says, trying to suppress an amused grin. “And same.”

Once Bazine’s back in the aisle and on her way out of the ballpark, Rey turns to Ben. “Oh my god! I’m so sorry!” she cries.

“What are you sorry about now,” he asks. 

“Your girlfriend just dumped you! I feel like it’s all my fault!” 

“Oh, that?” Ben asks. “We do that all the time.”

“Oh,” Rey says, sounding maybe just the slightest bit disappointed. “So then you think you’ll get back together?”

“What? Oh no. We’re done for good,” he tells her with confidence. 

Rey laughs. “If you do this all the time, how can you be so sure?”

“We’ve never broken up over something important before,” Ben shrugs. “You heard her: she doesn’t do parents. That’s a dealbreaker for me.” 

“Ben Solo, you’re a momma’s boy,” Rey teases him. 

He grins back at her. “Absolutely. She was right about Bazine. I wonder who else she’s right about?” 

\------

The fourth time the Kiss Cam lands on Ben and Rey, neither of them hesitates. They’ve spent the last hour, more or less, losing track of the game in favor of getting to know each other better. As their lips (finally) collide, the crowd goes wild. Up in the booth, a general manager whoops louder than all the rest.


End file.
